After a fair bit of research I just purchased an Iridium Extreme on a Pivotel Classic Casual plan and am very happy so far. I'll do a quick write up for anyone who is interested. I have no affiliations etc. Just a consumer.
We are caravaners who sometimes travel to remote areas and do side trips with our tent. Sometimes I go on my own
beach fishing (Coorong or
Robe area) or looking for more difficult 4x4 tracks in the Victorian High Country or
Flinders Ranges etc.
Thus, we need some ability to let our family know where we are, or when I am broken down, hopelessly bogged or in serious trouble. I may also take up shooting again so a device that can come with me is a consideration.
As a yachtie, I am familiar with EPIRBs and Personal Locator Beacons and decided they were good for life threading emergencies but not the less serious incidents like a
breakdown. I also considered
the Spot system which gets good reviews in Australia but attracts some scathing comments from users in the US. The inReach system looked good to me but when I saw the unit itself, I didn't like the size, shape and plastic feel of them.
I had previously looked at sat phones, but was put off by the price of the hand sets (I'm not eligible for the government subsidy) and in particular, the cost of calls.
Here's what I finally decided. The Iridium Extreme seems to get good reviews and is ruggedised (supposedly mil spec). It still feels a little "plastic" but is the sturdiest hand set I have seen. I managed to pick one up for the old price ($1,499). They now seem to fetch $1,699.
I went for the Pivotel Classic Casual plan. This gets me a normal Australian mobile number and it can make sat phone calls within Aus without having to add the international prefixes. Emergency 000 also works just like it does from a normal mobile. It can send SMS messages and although call costs are expensive, in-coming calls are at normal mobile rates to the caller and free to me. This means that if I want to call
home, I just sent send my wife an SMS asking her to call me and it cost the same as calling my mobile.
The hand set has an SOS button just like an EPIRB. What you do is remove a rubber cap on the top of the phone and press a
little red button. It gives you 30 seconds to cancel it before going into emergency mode. I have mine registered with Geos Alliance and programmed to call them and at the same time, send a SMS to a short list of family and friends. Both the phone call and text message contains my lat, long, alt, age of fix, number of satellites and how much battery the hand set has. It doesn't cost anything to register with Geos Alliance and they pass on your details to the Emergency response centre in
Canberra, so its just like activating an EPIRB (I will be corrected on this if others have actual experience). I have requested an actual
test so I will post an update if I have anything wrong.
The SOS button is also programmable. You can set it to call 000 or
home or simply to send a SMS with your location.
When my short listed friends receive a text with my location, there is also a hyperlink that when pressed, shows my location on a map.
Here are the costs of the plan. Monthly payment $22. One-off connection fee $110. Calls included $0. Flagfall $0. Calls to Australian numbers, inc' mobiles, 13/1300, 1800 and voicemail $3.30 per 30 seconds. SMS messages $0.55. Calls to other satellite
services are even more expensive ranging from $4.40 per 30 sec (Thuraya) to $19.80 per 30 sec (BGAN). Calls to 000/112 are free.
The reason this suites me is that I don't need to make sat phone calls to anyone. In a real emergency if one arose, I don't really care what the call rates are. So, once the initial costs are paid, it only costs me $22 per month and $0.55 for SMSs. The rest is at normal mobile rates if you accept my "text and phone me back" approach.
Set-up out of the box was easy and the phone registered itself with the Iridium sat system while standing on my back porch. Just be aware that the instructions that came in the box contained one wrong number (set up number for SMS) and I had to ring Pivotel to get the right one.
I have heard that some mobile carriers do charge more to call sat phones. I have only tested this with Telstra and the charges are exactly as Pivotel said they were.
I'm in a 12 month plan so if forumites know any better ones, I'm stuck for now.
Also no criticism is intended at other systems. This is just what seems to suite me.
Skulldug